This feminist discourse analysis examined litigants' and judges' speech in thirty small claims court hearings. Two areas of interaction were examined: The speech strategies people used to negotiate public institutions and the ways power relations of gender, race, class, and ethnicity were maintained, challenged or negotiated. The study revealed that while male and female litigants often engage in similar strategies for presenting themselves in court, there are a few clear differences in the choices they make. Men's testimony displayed a wide array of means to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. These strategies included frequent use of passive constructions and prefacing their account to shift the focus away from their liability. Women used prefacing in order to be permitted to continue their stories. Men frequently attempted to portray themselves as victimized and powerless, while women's testimony reflected attempts to appear in control and compassionate. Male litigants were more likely to use power-over strategies, such as interrupting and ignoring others. Women engaged in strategies of self-empowerment, such as using direct address to judges and other litigants. Male and female judges alike used power-over speech, including interrupting and ignoring. Reprimands, one of the forms of power-over, were used by both male and female judges, but the strongest forms of these came from men. Judges empowered litigants by two means: neutral and proactive strategies. All judges displayed the neutral versions. The proactive versions--explanation of legal procedure, fact finding and concern--were displayed more often by the woman judge. Most significant for this study were the ways in which all court participants brought assumptions about gender, class and race into the "neutral" courtroom. Those in positions of social power--whites, men, the upper classes, and native speakers of English--engaged in discourse in the court which presumed and perpetuated their social power. These practices include speaking for the less powerful, introducing negative assumptions about the worth of those in working class occupations, and arguing based on the negative values one holds about the relative value of men and women.

The following dissertation is a study of the construction of gender expressed by American women in a traditionally male occupation, that of the military. Specifically, the project focuses on the images and symbols of gender, work, and society created by the personal stories and life histories of women in the armed forces. The theoretical background includes contemporary concepts of language and social life, particularly those theories identified as social constructionist as well as feminist and anthropological theories of gender constructs. The methodological focus will incorporate ethnographic interviewing and discourse analysis of the life stories of the female participants. The conclusion will defend the constructionist view of communication theory and suggest ways of reconstructing gender roles in a changing post-industrial society.

Sojourn is a composition of intercultural interactions where people (re)constitute the various forms of life such as cultural patterns, autobiographies, relationships, and episodes. This dissertation is a compilation of the stories of sojourn of three Malay women as interpreted within the theoretical framework of Coordinated Management of Meaning, hereafter referred to as CMM (Pearce and Cronen, 1980). It is an episodic analysis of their reported daily interactions with Americans and other Malays during their sojourn in the United States. This episodic method allowed the reconstruction of stories from the responses elicited through circular questions. The CMM analysis included the similarities and differences in daily interactions, the tensions and emotions that emerged, patterns of resistance, stability, and transformations that were intrinsic in their lived experiences. A review of the three cases revealed that initial episodes with Americans reflected Malay patterns of interaction. These patterns of cultural communication created tensions and misunderstandings. Patterns of intercultural communication emerged after these women recognized that there are differences between their cultural ways. The ability to coordinate these intercultural interactions was a consequence of the implicative effects of their lived experiences. These lived experiences redefined their autobiographical stories and subsequently transformed their actions and interpretations of their told stories. It was also found that emotions have a role as social action that (re)constitute particular situations. Nevertheless, interactions with other Malays reflected a Malay pattern and any attempt to do otherwise was met with resistance. There are several implications of this study for intercultural research. First, the episodic analysis renders sojourn as an experience that is situated and interactive. It provides an in-depth, reflexive and interactive look into the lived experiences of sojourners. Second, this research is a co-construction and interactive process between the researcher and reciprocators for it allowed an active participation of the reciprocators. Third, the analysis reflected the creation of stories within a Malay cultural pattern. This is significant for intercultural research since both the researcher and the women affected the questions, data, and subsequently the findings. Thus, intercultural research is a contextualized and situated account.

The purpose of the study is to hear and record what women, who have recovered from anorexia, have to say about their experiences of self-starvation. The study bears witness to these lives and examines the interpretations that have guided the women's intentions, actions, and purposes. There are in-depth case studies of four women—Nell, Rose, Grace, and Marie. Each narrative gives an account of the particular phenomenological meanings embodied by the action of self-starvation and analyzes how each woman used this practice as a form of communication. The principle of collaboration has shaped the process of interviewing and the way the narratives have been constructed to give voice and authorship to the participants. The deconstruction of food and body as symbols gives access to the psychological and social experience of the participants. Violence and/or alcoholism played a role in the family backgrounds of all four women.

Research was carried out to explore and describe student-patient accounts about communication at the health appointment. The intent was to develop improved understanding about the patient-provider communication process from the patient's point of view. A multimethods design was used to address: (1) How do student-patients perceive the communication in a health interview? and (2) Do student-patient accounts of the physician or nurse practitioner interview differ? Subsequent to a scheduled yearly or revisit appointment, one hundred upperclass and graduate student women completed The Communication Satisfaction Scale and The Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale. Further, twenty-five women were interviewed about their perceptions of communication at the appointment. Symbolic interaction and accounts literature guided the overall effort. Survey outcomes indicated that participants perceived high levels of communication satisfaction. Further, sample subgroups showed no statistically significant differences; however, suggestive directions were noted. In the older (versus younger) participant subgroup, somewhat more favorable mean ratings of communication satisfaction were seen. In the subgroup by provider gender, very slightly more favorable mean communication satisfaction ratings were seen between student-patients and female physicians and nurse practitioners (than male physicians). Qualitative data suggested that the symbol of provider gender held the greatest meaning for participants. On biographical data sheets, participants cited minimal preferences related to choice of provider by gender; however, interview transcripts reflected the opposite. The qualitative data were assessed using a recently developed framework which examines womens' ways of knowing (Belenky et al, 1986). In younger interviewees, woman-to-woman communication more frequently depicted "connected" knowing, and woman-to-man communication, "separate" knowing. In older interviewees, more variable differences were noted. Assessment of provider symbol by role showed that younger participants hardly differentiated physician and nurse practitioner. For older participants, however, provider symbolism was of moderate influence in their communication. Overall, both quantitative and qualitative data showed high levels of communication satisfaction. Discussion illuminated the challenge faced by student-patients and providers alike in interpreting words in context, identifying their respective meanings, and managing the overall communication process.

This dissertation examines a body of popular arguments concerning gender and communication. In several important areas of popular cultural discourse, conflicts between men and women are regularly explained as misunderstandings caused by differences in communication style. This specific line of discourse is part of a larger picture where women and men are portrayed as fundamentally different groups, with different values systems, interpretive frameworks, and ways of using language. This miscommunication explanation for gender strife resonates with many men and women who find that it accurately reflects their experiences with the opposite sex. The overall purpose of this project is to identify the ways in which these discourses are used to make specific arguments about the meaning of perceived gender differences and to understand the consequences of those arguments. I examine popular representations of the miscommunication argument from a gender performance perspective. This perspective treats differences in communication behavior as the on-going performance of gender identity rather than as a simple product of gender identity. This perspective shifts attention away from identifying and verifying gender differences towards understanding the consequences persistent belief in gender differences. Women's communication style, as presented in popular literature, television, and participant comments, includes assisting others and deferring authority. At the same time, men's communication style is presented as a natural product of men's greater need for autonomy and independence. In self-help literature, these two different styles are used as a justification for men and women serving different roles in relationships and in the workplace. Women are portrayed as natural helpers at home and work while men are portrayed as better decision makers. Primetime television offered portrayals of men and women that closely parallel the different communication styles present in self-help literature. Finally, interviews with individuals about their response to a primetime television program revealed that many people believe that men and women have communication styles that match the styles presented in self-help literature. I conclude that the resonance of these differences is linked to the undeniable importance of communication in relationships coupled with the heterosexist bias of self-help literature and television representations of relationships.

Two studies examined the relationship between gender and self- and other-advocacy. In the first study, 163 business students (78 women and 85 men) participated in a questionnaire study that examined the relationships between gender, sex-role, modesty, self-esteem and subjects' responses to two advocacy scenarios. In response to the first scenario, modesty influenced subjects' reported preference for using either self- or other-advocacy. When subjects read a second scenario about a self-advocate, modest and feminine subjects responded more favorably toward people who had explicit reasons for their requests. In Study 2, actual advocacy was examined. In response to a job description, 178 subjects (102 women and 76 men) wrote a letter accepting the position and requesting a salary. As predicted, when women were told that they would meet with a male evaluator, they requested lower salaries for themselves and higher salaries for friends. Men who believed that they would meet with a male evaluator requested higher salaries for themselves and lower salaries for friends. The opposite pattern of results was found when women and men were not told that they would meet an evaluator. Implications for the role that gender norms play in men's and women's advocacy are discussed.

Using ethnographic methods, this case study explores the ways in which women use the ritual of group storytelling to construct “survivor” identities after experiencing domestic violence. The primary focus of this study is an examination of the interrelationship between Second Wave radical and cultural feminist discourse, gender identity formation and contemporary anti-violence educational and clinical practice. The communication events studied to produce these stories are informal conversations, participant observation of shelter outreach group work and semi-structured interviews. This research project analyzes how women use stories to both comprehend and reconstruct their experiences of domestic violence. In addition, it interrogates how adult women in twenty-first century Northern Colorado combine both feminist and recovery concepts and tropes to trouble normative notions of the ‘victim’ of intimate trauma and in doing so, create more useful and potentially oppositional representations of the adult female self after interpersonal abuse.